Now Mike Huckabee says 'forcible rapes' create 'extraordinary' people as he comes to Todd Akin's defense

Mike Huckabee has added to the furore Rep. Todd Akin unleashed with his 'legitimate rape' comments by pointing out that 'extraordinary' people can be born out of 'forcible rape'.

The one-time presidential candidate made the claim, which will no doubt stoke the fires of outrage, on his radio show on Thursday as he gave the beleaguered Akin a platform to explain his comments.

'Ethel Waters, for example, was the
result of a forcible rape,' Huckabee said of the late singer, as reported in theLos Angeles Times.

Stoking the fires of outrage: Former Arkansas Governor and one-time presidential candidate Mike Huckabee has said 'forcible rape' creates 'extraordinary' people as he defends Rep. Todd Akin's rape comments

'I used to
work for James Robison back in the 1970s. He leads a large Christian
organisation. He was the result of a forcible rape.'

He added: 'I know it happens, and yet
even from those horrible, horrible tragedies of rape, which are
inexcusable and indefensible, life has come and sometimes, those people
are able to do extraordinary things.'

Odd argument: Huckabee said televangelist James Robison, left, and singer Ethel Waters, right, were products of rape - and examples that victims' offspring can go on to do 'extraordinary' things

Glenn Moye added: 'According to Mike Huckabee, rape can actually be a GOOD thing. Maybe we need MORE "forcible" "legitimate" rape.'

On his show, Huckabee was referencing earlier comments made by Texan televangelist James Robison, whose mother had been raped.

'My mother was a practical nurse and was
raped by the alcoholic son of the elderly man she cared for,' Robison told the Christian Broadcasting Network. 'It was a forced - I don't think we would call it violent - but
he forced his affections on her, and at age 40 she conceived me.'

He added that he later confronted his father, but that his adoptive parents helped him find God.

'So here I sit as a product of rape, but I had an encounter with God,' Robison said.

No pressure: Mitt Romney said he will not join the clamour demanding Akin bows out of the Senate race

Huckabee's other reference, Ethel Waters, was also the product of rape; her mother, believed to have been around 13 years old, was raped by a family friend and Waters was born in 1896.

Her father had no part in her upbringing and she later recounted a miserable childhood in poverty.

The poorly-judged comments come as Mitt Romney revealed he will not join the growing clamour for Akin to drop out of the U.S. Senate race in Missouri.